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Source: (consider it)
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Thread: Are we addicted to secrecy and avoiding public guilt?
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orfeo
Ship's Musical Counterpoint
# 13878
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Posted
First, I should point out that while this story is new, the events it relates to are close to a decade old.
But it has emerged that in New South Wales, the Roman Catholic Church tried to strike a deal with police that was illegal. The church wanted the right to decide whether or not to provide information about abuse cases.
We now have a national Royal Commission about child abuse, which is in theory about institutions more generally but in practice is primarily about churches.
And it's really not about the abuse so much as why the hell people covered it up all the time.
I'm not sure the churches are alone in this behaviour. Plenty of companies, I'm sure, have decided to handle something behind closed doors in the hope that news doesn't get out.
But isn't the hope a vain one? Doesn't someone always talk in the end, if it's something really serious?
I guess I'm trying to understand what drives this behaviour. Whether it's a sincere belief that an organisation really does have the internal capacity to handle something, a naive belief that it won't get out, or too much focus on supposed negative PR (the PR problems are much WORSE after a cover-up is revealed!)
In the case of churches I do also wonder if there's still a lingering belief that the Lords Spiritual are outside the power of the Lords Temporal.
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Technology has brought us all closer together. Turns out a lot of the people you meet as a result are complete idiots.
Posts: 18173 | From: Under | Registered: Jul 2008
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orfeo
Ship's Musical Counterpoint
# 13878
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Posted
(Also, people believing that an unsigned, draft memorandum was in force is an exercise in wishful thinking that would get most managers sacked.)
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Technology has brought us all closer together. Turns out a lot of the people you meet as a result are complete idiots.
Posts: 18173 | From: Under | Registered: Jul 2008
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Gramps49
Shipmate
# 16378
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Posted
I believe it is the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America's policy that if the if there is known abuse of a child it needs to be reported to the authorities ASAP regardless of pastoral confidentiality. Too often congregations and pastors have been sued for not reporting such instances.
If the abuse is by a church employee, the congregational council and synod bishop must also be informed and appropriate discipline as outlined in the congregational and synod constitutions must be followed.
Written procedures must be in place,
By all means, it is important to retain the advice of a lawyer on this.
[ 04. October 2013, 20:41: Message edited by: Gramps49 ]
Posts: 2193 | From: Pullman WA | Registered: Apr 2011
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